FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ELECTION

The four candidates running for Burbank Unified school board outline why they're the best choice. Steve Ferguson Age: 24 Profession: Principal of CF Political and Media Strategies As a candidate for school board, I believe that it is important to put forward a plan for which you can be held accountable. I am the only candidate to put forward new ideas to better our district, which include more financial transparency measures, the development of alumni associations, and the establishment of a Parents Bill of Rights to help parents navigate our district more effectively for their child.

The city has received roughly 4,000 ballots for the April 9 election since they were mailed out about two weeks ago, but candidates are still in campaign mode, continuing to expand their war chests in the final weeks before the election, recent filings show. The four vying for two seats on the Burbank City Council have collectively raised $17,738 for the most recent filing period, which covers roughly the last month, according to expenditure reports filed with the city clerk. Incumbent Dave Golonski is leading the fundraising efforts, having amassed $7,100 - which includes $2,000 he lent his campaign - from roughly 45 contributors.

For years, City Council members-elect have been invited by Burbank officials to sit in on closed-door meetings prior to being sworn in. But City Atty. Amy Albano has issued a memo saying that the practice violates state law. Even so, the City Council next week is slated to discuss bringing Bob Frutos - who won election outright during the February primary - into the fold for closed-door meetings prior to his swearing in. In her memo, Albano said meetings cannot be “semi-closed,” citing that “interested members of the public may not be admitted to a closed session while the remainder of the public is excluded.” She added that people “without an official role in the meeting should not be present.” At a council meeting last week, Councilman David Gordon - who on March 5 initially proposed inviting Frutos to a closed meeting - said Albano's opinion differed from what Burbank has done in the past, when elected council members were invited to observe the meetings before being sworn in. In closed-door meetings, the council may discuss pending litigation, performance evaluations or labor negotiations.

Ara Manoogian hadn't eaten for nine days as of Monday, and he was prepared to go without food for weeks, or even months, more. Camped in an RV parked outside Rep. Adam Schiff's Burbank office, Manoogian said his hunger strike was in protest of President Obama's congratulatory remarks toward the re-elected president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, amid allegations of election fraud and bribery following what Manoogian called a corrupt regime. PHOTOS: Hunger strike to protest Obama support of Armenian president “When the president congratulates something, that means you, me and everybody else that's an American citizen is congratulating this person,” Manoogian said, adding that Sargsyan is using the remarks to legitimize his election.

Burbank Leader staff interviewed each candidate for Burbank Unified school board and Burbank City Council. The following are staff endorsements for Burbank's municipal elections on April 9: Endorsement for Burbank Unified school board: Applebaum, Ferguson Endorsements for Burbank City Council: Nos, Talamantes RELATED: Glendale and Burbank political races impacted by social media ...

Tensions ran high at Thursday's City Council candidate forum, with two longtime incumbents David Gordon and Dave Golonski unleashing confrontational jabs at each other's on-the-job performances throughout the night. Gordon blasted Golonski's idea of outsourcing city services, while Golonski explained why he's never voted to appoint Gordon, a seven-year councilman, as mayor. The forum was hosted by the Burbank Assn. of Realtors and moderated by its president, Eric Benz. To Golonski, outsourcing services is a better option than raising fees or cutting services to balance the budget, and would save money for repairing the city's deteriorating streets and to pay down the unfunded pension liability.

Amid criticism of delayed results during the Burbank primary election in February, during which final numbers weren't announced until roughly 12:45 a.m., city officials say they have plans to release initial results earlier in the evening for the April 9 general election. During the February primary, officials collected roughly 1,500 ballots in the last three hours before the ballot drop-off centers closed at 7 p.m. And before officials started counting any of the 9,811 votes - including the more than 8,000 that were already turned in and validated - they waited to validate the signatures on the later ballots, thus delaying the overall results, said Burbank City Clerk Zizette Mullins.

I am gratified and humbled beyond words at the outpouring of the support and confidence Burbank voters have shown me in our primary election. I truly feel I am blessed, not only to live in a wonderful city like Burbank, but also to have the affection and backing of the residents I will serve with pride and dedication. Ours is a special city, a place we gratefully call home and raise our families. Every resident and business owner deserves an open, committed, active and caring city government, and on the City Council, I pledge you my total effort and energy toward that goal.

Although more voters participated in Burbank's primary election this week than turned out in 2011, it still drew yawns from most. Some of those who sat back and let the others decide the outcome may wish now that they had been paying more attention and gotten in on the action. When the dust settled on Tuesday's vote, Robert Frutos was the sole City Council candidate out of six who secured more than 50% of the votes cast. His seat is secure, but incumbents David Gordon, Jess Talamantes and David Golonski - not to mention solid challenger David Nos - will be battling it out for the two remaining seats when the general election is held April 9. This means one of our sitting council members will be out when the votes are tallied next month; maybe we'll be showing the door to two. Perhaps, as Frutos suggests, those who voted in this week's election would prefer that the money the city has spent on lawsuits defending itself (some $7.1 million in recent cases)

Armond Aghakhanian is officially out of the Burbank Unified school board race after collecting the least amount of primary election votes among five candidates competing for two seats. With just 2,749 votes, Aghakhanian trailed at fifth place behind David Dobson, who had 2,854, according to final figures released Friday by the city clerk's office. The two had been within the margin of unconfirmed mail-in ballots after Tuesday, forcing the candidates to wait until the results had been verified.